Between the Skies and Waves
by Yellow Galex
Summary: She can never forget her.


Everything was coming back.

The memories, the feelings, the love – everything.

Just three words from her, and Umi was taken back.

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There wasn't anything special with how Umi fell in love. They were childhood friends, they played together a lot and they went to the same school. They grew up together, protected each other and learned how to recognize the difference between friendship and love as they turned older. One day she woke up, to which it could have been any other ordinary day, really; but there was that one day that she realized – "Oh, I'm in love with her."

To Umi, when she finally got hit by the realization, it was one of the best days of her life and it was also the scariest. Love gave her fluttery feelings inside, but she also had her worries about not getting those feelings returned so she gave herself a lot of pointless suffering before she eventually decided to confess. And with the support from her closest friends, especially from their best friend Honoka, she gathered enough courage and strength to finally let Kotori know.

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The confession that happened in their senior year was a cute and funny story. It already took a lot of guts for Umi to be able to tell Kotori to meet her at the rooftop after school, and that event alone made Umi stutter to death that Honoka had to take over the talking for her.

On the time of the confession, they were alone at the rooftop with no Honoka or other people to interfere and catch her words if she stuttered again (but not really, Honoka was behind the door listening). They were in the middle of the grounds where they used to practice their sing and dance numbers for when they were still school idols, both standing face to face with each other, and with Umi breathing rapidly through her mouth.

"Umi-chan are you okay?" Kotori asked, her eyebrows knitted up with how Umi looked like she was about to pass out from lack of air.

"Y-Y-Yes! I am absolutely fine!" was her shaky reply.

Umi took more deep breaths and she quickly, or desperately, changed her face from panicked to determined, a gesture that made Kotori smile at her amusingly.

"Kotori, I-!" Umi started. Kotori tilted her head a little to show that she was listening.

"I… Um… From- From the first time we met, I always thought that you were cute! And you were very friendly, too!"

Kotori's smile grew bigger. Umi was literally shouting compliments at her. "Thanks?" she whispered.

Umi shook her head fast. "No, no, I mean you've always been in my mind, like an inspiration. Especially when I write poetry!"

"Umi-chan…"

"Kotori, please listen to me." Umi closed her eyes and fists tightly. "I want- um, I need you to know something. And this, what I'm going to tell you is absolutely- no, it's something that- it's really something that's been go—"

Locked. Their lips were locked.

"I know it, Umi-chan," Kotori said when she stepped back and saw Umi open her eyes into two big balls of amber. "I've always felt it. And I feel the same too."

Kotori wasn't sure if she should wait for a response from Umi but she raised both her eyebrows to gain some sort of reaction. Umi, as expected, remained completely frozen with her eyes wide open and mouth awkwardly closed.

Someone shouted from behind the door instead. "Umi-chan say something, you idiot!"

Kotori tried not to laugh. The shout seemed to have knocked some consciousness into Umi and she sharply took a deep breath as if she was rescued from drowning.

"Y-You feel… the same?" she asked hesitantly. Kotori nodded eagerly.

Umi stopped talking again for a while, but the ever-supportive Honoka wasn't having any of that anymore. She opened the door and stuck her head out without shame.

"Umi-chan you're being slow! Say it to her now! Just like we practiced!" Kotori laughed this time.

"Go away, Honoka!" Umi shouted back with her head to the side. She turned again to Kotori's direction, her eyes completely determined once more. She held the ashen-haired girl's shoulders with her rough hands, hoping to make the atmosphere become more sincere between them.

"Kotori, I…" she started again. She closed her eyes for a moment and released the breath she was holding. _This is it. I will look at her in the eye and say—_

"I love you, Kotori."

Kotori wore the biggest smile she'd ever had. "I love you too, Umi-chan!"

"FINALLY! Come here you guys!" Honoka exclaimed as she ran over to her two best friends and pulled them to a group hug. "Now do that kiss again!"

"HONOKA!" Umi and Kotori shouted.

It probably could have gone better, but Umi was more than happy with how it went despite having Honoka as their supportive eavesdropper.

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Technically, their first kiss was when Kotori caught Umi off guard during the confession. But Umi always considered a different one as their first _official_ kiss.

The one that was more passionate. The one where both of them were ready for it.

"Umi-chan, look!"

Kotori pointed at the night sky. By coincidence, there was a meteor shower when they decided to just stay in the playground where they first met as kids. They already came from a fun date earlier that day but they still didn't want their time together to end just yet.

Both of them had their eyes glued to the hundreds of stars that painted the night sky with their trails. Umi was about to say something about stars, something that Nozomi told her not so long ago, but she got more star-struck with how Kotori looked so beautiful while she smiled in awe for the falling lights in the sky.

Umi was never one to initiate intimacy, but she knew in her heart that this was the perfect time to kiss the most beautiful girl she'd ever seen in her life.

"Kotori."

When Kotori turned to Umi, the archer was looking at her with so much love in her eyes that she almost forgot how to breathe. She felt a hand touching her cheek, and the feel of Umi's palm burned her so much like never before.

She smiled. "Did you wish for anything, Umi-chan?"

Umi nodded. "I wished to be with you always."

Kotori closed her eyes, and Umi let all the warmth she had inside be taken from her with the kiss.

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If there was anything that Umi hated, it was Kotori being too friendly to everyone.

And she meant _everyone_.

"In case you haven't noticed, _she_ was all over you and _she_ was doing it on purpose because I was there." Umi said, her voice as cold as ice. She closed the door to their apartment.

"Are we really going to go through this again?" Kotori answered frustratedly, throwing herself on the sofa. If Umi hated her being 'too friendly', Kotori hated how her girlfriend was too possessive sometimes. " _She_ 's like that to all our classmates and friends. And _she_ also happens to be my partner in our project for Fashion and Culture, so yeah, I don't think talking nicely means that _she_ 's all over me, Umi-chan."

"Oh. I certainly didn't know that _talking nicely_ involves the both of you laughing on your entire conversation. And I also do not recall how _talking nicely_ involved touching each other's arms _and_ hugging for more than a minute before finally ending the _nice_ conversation."

Kotori scoffed. Umi was definitely being ridiculous right now. "Why are you such a jealous freak, Umi-chan?!" she squeaked.

"Did you just shout at me?" Umi said plainly, her eyes squinted. "I'm just stating what I saw earlier when I fetched you in your university. There is no need to shout at me even if you're guilty."

"You are impossible, Umi-chan!" Kotori shouted before she walked away.

This kind of fight between them was just petty, really. They also fought about how Kotori always left a lot of mess whenever she was working on a project or homework, and sometimes about how Umi was so strict with timekeeping and dieting. But at the end of the day, they settled it with shy sorry's and some cuddling because Umi was a big fan of cuddles.

Umi can never resist it when Kotori gave her _that look_ anyway.

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Did they have their first time?

Why, yes of course.

There came a time when their love just didn't fit the cuddling and kissing anymore and they just clashed with each other's body one night.

Kotori honestly expected Umi to stop midway, that maybe Umi was just sleepy or was thinking that she was dreaming, or to freak out and tell her that it was improper and embarrassing and impure and _wrong_ , but she never heard a word from Umi except her muffled moans of _Kotori_ and _yes_.

Umi was very gentle, though. Even if she barely had any idea on what she was doing, she knew that she had to be gentle because that was what she wanted Kotori to feel and understand about her love for her. Umi didn't want Kotori to ever get hurt in any way, and if she had to make love to Kotori, she wanted it to feel as if it was her _deeper_ way of showing what Kotori really meant to her.

It eventually happened almost every night after that, but both of them didn't mind as long as they didn't tire each other out too much (sometimes Kotori got too… wild). Umi wanted to ingrain every piece of Kotori in her heart as much as she could, and this was just one of the ways that she knew how.

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But the worst fight they had was about _time_.

Umi finished her Liberal Arts degree, Kotori with Fashion Design. They both landed jobs immediately, they moved to a bigger apartment than what they shared during college, and they had their lives on a long way ahead of them.

Unfortunately, Kotori's budding career posted a big threat to their life together.

Umi was very supportive of Kotori's passion but it came to a point that the latter was rarely ever at home because of projects here and there, and sometimes when Umi was also stressed with her own job as an editorial assistant in a big publishing company, they ended up lashing out their exhaustion to one another.

They still handled the fights the same way they always did – they tried to – but there were those times where hurtful words got involved.

"Kotori, you need to sleep." Umi said, her words carrying a lot of worry. She stood by the door of Kotori's work room in their shared unit.

"I need to finish these designs tonight, Umi-chan. I have a deadline to meet," Kotori replied, not even sparing a glance at Umi as she continued to move her pencil up and down.

Umi sighed. "You're never home most of the time and when you're here, you're still working."

"Umi-chan." The tone was a bit alarming, but Kotori was trying to keep her voice calm. "I _need_ to finish these tonight. Can't we have your nagging some other time?"

"Nagging?" Umi frowned. "Do you mean to say that I'm nagging right now?"

"No, but I know that you're about to. That's how you always are when something doesn't go with your routine, Umi-chan." Kotori still hadn't stopped with her pencil.

"Then please excuse me if telling you that you need to sleep is already unwelcome." Umi said coldly. "I just thought that I needed to care."

"No. You don't."

"What is your problem?" Umi asked exasperatedly. That was the last straw.

"My problem?" Kotori turned to the bluehead. "Umi-chan I just told you that we can do your _nagging_ on another time. Why are you disturbing me on my work?"

"Please tell me why you are acting as if I do not exist in your life."

"You're being ridiculous again, Umi-chan." she said as she went back to her drawing. "I really have no time for this."

Umi smirked. "Yes. I can perfectly see how you really have no time for _this_ anymore."

Kotori turned to look at Umi again but she was no longer there.

And so their days passed at the same pace with them still barely talking to each other. They also hardly look at each other's eyes, they sleep with a huge margin between them in one bed, and the air was only so thick whenever they found themselves under the same roof.

They woke up one day and they just both knew that nothing was ever the same anymore.

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To be really honest, she never really wanted to give up. But she was at a loss then. She didn't know what else to do anymore.

She still loved her so; she knew well that it was also the same for the other and yet she felt as if she already needed to let go. They were stuck in the roughest patch of their lives and it was tiring and exhausting and draining her entire being every single day.

Their six years of being together, of being in love – it was all too hard for her to see how everything was crumbling down right before her eyes.

Even she had her limits.

Umi had to be the one to break it off.

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* * *

They only saw each other again after two years.

Honoka proposed to have a reunion of their former school idol group that year. Miraculously, everyone was finally available to attend, especially Kotori.

When they went their separate ways, Kotori finally accepted the offer from her company in which she was sent to Paris as a representative for fashion events. She eventually got assigned to supervise their branch there too, so she was out of the country for two years.

It was fine, Umi thought, for she felt that it was the best for them. She wasn't sure if Honoka was saying anything to Kotori, but Umi found it more convenient to have her first love out of her life as she dwelt again into pointless suffering. It was harder to get over it this time, but she was able to pick herself up somewhere along the way.

And so now, after two years, at the very moment their eyes met again—

"I missed you." were the first words Kotori spoke to her.

She was smiling at her in the same way that she did when they first met as kids. She had _that look_ that still pierced into her heart like it was all bare in front of her. Her sweet voice rang in her ears and suddenly she can hear all the words they told each other before that always made her weak in the knees.

Umi saw everything again with just three words from Kotori. She remembered all of it when she thought that she had forgotten; it haunted her right on the spot when she thought that she had numbed herself enough to face her with a smile.

She never forgot her.

And everything was coming back.

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"I missed you too."

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A/N: KotoUmi fights are fun. Haha no not really.

My apologies for any errors and OOC. Thanks as always for reading! You guys are awesome.


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